Chris

Question 1

That’s all right, just the…

Answer 1

…book section
pg 11

Juxtaposition w Keller ‘It’s more interesting in the want ads’

Narrow responsibility vs wider responsibility

Question 2

My whole bloody life, time after time after time

Answer 2

Pg 16

taboo lang ‘bloody’- annoyance and frustration

repetition- exhausted, used for his kindness

Question 3

You have such a talent for ignorning things

Answer 3

Pg 16

Dramatic irony- Chris is acc unaware

Foreshadowing- Keller’s ignorance

Question 4

I’ve been a good son too long, a good sucker. I’m through with it

Answer 4

pg 17

repetition of ‘good’- impact, pre-planned

Question 5

KQ:The business doesn’t inspire me… I want it beautful, I want a family, I want some kids, I want to build something I can give myself to.

Answer 5

Pg 17

Verb “inspire” illustrates a genuine desire for fulfilment in his work, rather than blindly following wealth and materialism. Adds a sense of wholesomeness to his character, which which perhaps represents a post-war longing for something more out of life, being frustrated and tired with superficiality of society.

Anaphora- pre-planned, considered speech. Importance of this to Chris

‘Beautiful’ creates a sense of idealism, contrasted with the gritty and harsh verb “grub”, which would suggest hard and difficult labour. Chris is used to explore and illustrates the nature of idealism, in which idealism and hope are separated from blind optimism.

Idealism- aspiration for AD blind him from seeing the reality of the business he is inheriting ( I was made yellow)

Downward convergence- ‘I want it beautiful’- Keller is uneducated

Question 6

KQ: In the battalion he was known as mother mckeller

Wider responsibility

Changed American

Answer 6

pg 24

Compassionate figure, selfless, philantropic

Mother- proper noun= familial connotation, wider responsibility. To a changed American thehy were all his sons

Question 7

KQ:So who flew those P-40s, pigs?

Changed American

Chris and Keller

Wider responsiblity

Context- Curtiss-wright manufactures

Answer 7

pg 32

Conflict builds here. Chris’s views of social responsibility are in direct contrast to his father’s views on life.

Tone of sarcam

‘Pigs’- either animalistic imagery= to Joe they were no more than animals
OR idiom= made up, imaginary people, doesnt have the wider capacity to see them as lives

Chris belives they deserve the same consideration as Larry- wider responsibility

Changed American

Specific plane ‘P-40’ is contextually significant. Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was the third most-produced American fighter of World War II- and it was produced by the Curtiss- Wright who had conspired with army inspection officers to approve defective aircraft engines destined for military use

Question 8

KQ: A kind of… responsibility

Responsibility

Guilt

Answer 8

35

Collective responsibility- juxtaposes Keller’s monologue

Pause-hesitance and remorse= survivors guilt

Question 9

That rat-race again

Answer 9

35

idiom- belittles business, no value in money for him

Changed American

Question 10

I… there was no meaning in it here

Answer 10

35

false start- confused at ignorance of society

criticises AD

post-war american- prioirity has changed away from capitalism

Question 11

Do you think i could forgive him if he’d done that thing?

Answer 11

47

thing- euphemism, naive, foreshadows reaction

accusatory tone- appaled

Question 12

Remember he was falsely accused once and it put him through hell

Answer 12

47

Remember- imperative verb, accusatory, harsh tone= love/obligation for his father

idiom- evokes pathos, hyperbolises what Keller has gone through

sin- presents K as a vulnerable figure, victimises him

Question 13

KQ: Dad…Dad, you killed twenty-one men!

You killed them, you murdered them

Answer 13

69

pause- disebelief

‘Dad’- repetition of personal pronoun urgency to appeal to his paternal nature

exclamative- voice of fury

Direct adress- accusatory voice

Killed -> murdered. Shift in tone, increasing rage. Use of violent verb

Question 14

KQ: [With burning fury] For me!… For me!- I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me?

Answer 14

70

Prosodic- Anger, rage

Pause- disbelief

Repetition ‘For me’- doesnt understand the narrow responsibility mindset

‘my boys’- personal pronoun, sense of responisbility

‘I was dying every day’ Metaphor- survivors guilt

Question 15

KQ: Don’t you have a country? What the hell are you? You’re not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you?

Answer 15

70

“Don’t you have a country?” = questioning Joe’s allegiances in a greatly patriotic post-war America, suggesting he doesn’t understand the responsibility we have for one another.

Rep of rhetoricals- increasing fury

Animalistic imagery - dehumanises keller, suggesting a lack of basic morality and intelligence, acts also as a critique for wider society, and the conservative establishment, of which Joe is a product of - the actions of both being abhorrent. In reality, animals often do kill each other, Chris does not fully understand society as a whole, yet knows there are problems.

Link to P-40 pigs- to Joe they were no more than animals

belittles him- lost respect for his father

admonishes his lack of concern for humanity

Question 16

KQ: I’m yellow. I was made yellow in this house.

Answer 16

80

colour imagery = metaphor for his shame and cowardice

as an excuse to act selfishly in the name of pragmatism, a conservative ideal.

This degradation of himself is the result of him not being able to do the right and him realising that in the real world, he may be unable to uphold his ‘man for man’ ideology and instead, he was doing exactly what he condemned his father for doing, which is running away from his problems

Second yellow- passive, was made complicit

Declarative

Admitance as a coward= strong social responsibility, doesn’t self-exculpate

Question 17

I’m practical now. You made me practical

Answer 17

80

Repetition of practical- stunted, hung up on it

loss of innocence and collectivity

the imperative verb “made” would suggest an inability to change this, he is forced to be complicit, but in reality he is not.

Question 18

This is the land of the great big dogs, you don’t love a man here, you eat him!

Answer 18

81

Animalistic imagery- inhumanity of society

Extended metaphor

Exculpates father- familial responsibility

reference to Christianity. Chris sees the world as cruel and inhumane, especially those that profited from the war.

Question 19

I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father

Answer 19

82

Emphatic stress on personal pronoun

Man and Father juxtaposition- appeals to paternal ideology and Keller’s familial obligation

Question 20

You can be better! Once and for all you can know there’s a universe of people outside and you’re responsible to it.’

Answer 20

84

Stichomythia+ exclamative
- tension

proxy for Miller

Adverbial phrase

Didactic play

Question 21

“Oh Annie, Annie… I’m going to make a fortune for you!”

Answer 21

Prioritising family, and a enthusiasm to make money as a form of protection / a guarantee of the future, seems to echo Joe’s motives elsewhere in the play. Repetition of “Annie” shows he is caught up in his emotion and love for Annie, and there’s where his motivation for love comes from. The personal pronoun “you” further reinforces this idea that motives are selfless. However, he is carried away in this desire. “Fortune” suggests a life of excess, the purity of love has been tainted by materialism, and we seek to express this through money? “Fortune” disrupts monosyllabic rhythms = corrupts his simplistic motives of providing for family.